Video game teaches kids about stroke symptoms and calling 9-1-1

DALLAS
– Children improved their understanding of stroke
symptoms and what to do if
they witness a stroke after playing a 15-minute stroke education video game,
according to new research reported in the American Heart Association journal
Stroke.

Researchers
tested 210 9- and 10-year-old, low-income children from the Bronx, New York, on
whether they could identify stroke and knew to call 9-1-1 if they saw
someone having a stroke. Researchers tested the children again after they
played a stroke education video game, called Stroke Hero. Finally, they gave
the children remote access to the video game and encouraged them to play at
home, re-testing 198 of the children seven weeks later.

Researchers
found:

Children were 33 percent more likely to
recognize stroke from a hypothetical scenario and call 9-1-1 after they
played the video game. They retained the knowledge when they were
re-tested seven weeks later.

Children who continued to play the game
remotely were 18 percent more likely to recognize the stroke symptom of
sudden imbalance than were the children who played the video game only
once.

Ninety percent of the children studied
reported they liked playing Stroke Hero. While 67 percent said they would
play it at home, only about 26 percent did. Researchers didn't examine
why.

"We
need to educate the public, including children, about stroke, because often
it's the witness that makes that 9-1-1 call; not the stroke victim. Sometimes,
these witnesses are young children," said Olajide Williams, M.D., M.S., lead
author and associate professor of neurology at Columbia University in New York
City.

The
Stroke Hero video game involves navigating a clot-busting spaceship within an
artery, and shooting down blood clots with a clot-busting drug. When the supply
of clot-busting drugs runs out, gamers must answer stroke awareness questions
in order to refuel. The game is synced to a hip hop song.

The
study suggests that the novel approach of using video games to teach children
about stroke could have far-reaching implications. However, the study was small
and there was no comparison group, so the results should be viewed with
caution, Williams said.

"Video
games are fun, widely available and accessible for most children," Williams
said. "Empowering every potential witness with the knowledge and skills
required to make that life-saving decision if they witness a stroke is
critical."

Stroke
Hero is available for free to those who register at www.hiphoppublichealth.org. Co-authors
are Mindy F. Hecht, M.P.H.; Alexandra L. DeSorbo, M.P.H.; Saima Huq, M.P.H.;
and James M. Noble M.D., M.S. The National Institutes of Health's National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke funded the study.

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